Loeffler concedes Georgia Senate runoff to Warnock
Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the Republican incumbent, conceded her Senate runoff to Democratic Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock on Thursday — two days after Election Day and CNN and after several other news organizations projected Warnock the winner.
Loeffler thanked her supporters in a video and said she had called Warnock to offer her congratulations. She also promised that she would still be politically active.
“I fully intend to stay in this fight for freedom, for our values and for the future of this great country,” Loeffler said.
Related: Georgia runoff results
It took some time for Loeffler to get to this place. Her defeat was evident on election night as she trailed Warnock by tens of thousands of votes, but the Republican told supporters that she believed she still had a path to victory before bragging that she was headed to Washington to object to the counting of the Electoral College votes in Congress. News organizations called the race for Warnock early Wednesday morning.
Loeffler did initially object to the Electoral College results, before violence and chaos descended on the US Capitol after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the building. After the Senate reconvened, she changed her position and said she would no longer object to the presidential election results in her state.
In the state’s other Senate runoff, CNN has projected that Democrat Jon Ossoff has defeated incumbent GOP Sen. David Perdue. Perdue has yet to concede, but trails by more than 40,000 votes with 99% of the vote counted. The margin of victory for Ossoff is currently outside the margin that would allow for a recount of the results.
The twin victories for Democrats will give the party control of the US Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to break ties in the chamber.
